An article posted on PhysOrg. com by Mary Anne Simpson, describes the ozonation technology that was used in the Water Cube in Beijing (and in fact in six of the past summer games since 1972), to replace the irritating, nasty side effects of highly chlorinated water.

Reverse osmosis, however, is hardly state of the art -- essentially consisting of the same treatment applied through commercially available home tap water filters, while ozonation can introduce additional problems such as the formation of the chemical bromate, a suspected carcinogen.

Waste from resort is converted into usable water in two ways, both at a recycling plant for initial treatment, and then separately through a three-step purifying process of UV light filtration, ozonation and ultra-filtration.

The tertiary treatment process will use ozone and biological media filtration, to reduce color, odor and suspended solids, followed by secondary ozonation, while ultraviolet radiation and chlorine will be used for disinfection.

Many water utilities are busy reducing the amount of chlorine used for drinking water, reducing detention time (the time it takes to get from the filtration plant to your tap), and using alternative disinfection methods, such as UV, ozonation, and the like.